Israel has dramatically escalated its bombardment of Gaza. A military spokesman said Israel struck more than 320 Hamas targets overnight, focusing on underground tunnel networks and rocket launching sites. This brings the number of targets hit to 750 in three days, killing at least 80 Palestinians.

A fireball erupts from a building hit by an Israeli air strike in Gaza CityAFPA plume of smoke rises over Gaza following an Israel Air Force bombingGettyA member of the civil defence reacts after a house in Gaza City was hit by an Israeli airstrikeReuters

Neither side is showing any sign of halting their heaviest fighting since an eight-day battle in late 2012. Israel says that Hamas must cease rocket fire from Gaza. Militants have fired hundreds of rockets, but no one has been seriously harmed as the Iron Dome defence system has intercepted at least 70 of projectiles.

Palestinian medical officials said a strike struck a home in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, killing eight members of the Al Haj family. At least eight others were killed when a strike hit a Gaza beach cafe where they were watching the World Cup semi-final match between Argentina and the Netherlands.

The Israeli military said it was investigating both incidents. It also said it struck a car in Gaza carrying three Islamic Jihad militants involved in firing rockets. The militant group confirmed that its men were killed in the strike.

Palestinians inspect the wreckage of a car that had been carrying three Islamic Jihad militants involved in firing rocketsAFPPalestinians inspect the remains of a car hit by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City. The killed driver, Hamed Shehab, 30, worked for the Gaza-based news website Media 24ReutersRelatives and friends of the al-Kaware family carry their bodies to the mosque during their funeral in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. The father, a member of the Fatah movement, and his six young sons were all killed in an Israeli air strike that targeted their homeAFPA Palestinian man walks through debris as he inspects damage following an Israeli air strike in Gaza CityReutersPalestinians inspect a house that was damaged in an Israeli air strike on a neighbouring house, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza StripReutersA Palestinian searches for his belongings under the rubble of a house destroyed in an Israeli air strike in the northern Gaza StripReuters

The Health Ministry in Gaza has reported 81 deaths thus far, saying about half were women and children though the exact breakdown remains unclear.

Israel accuses militants of deliberately endangering civilians by using homes and other civilian buildings for cover. The military has also directly targeted the offices and homes of known militants that it says are used as command centres.

Smoke trails are seen as rockets are launched towards Israel from northern GazaReutersA missile is launched by an Iron Dome battery, a short-range missile defence system designed to intercept and destroy incoming short-range rockets and artillery shells, in the southern Israeli city of AshdodAFPThe Israeli anti-missile Iron Dome defence system intercepts and destroys a rocket launched from the Gaza strip into IsraelReutersA woman takes a photo of a car damaged when the remains of a rocket intercepted by Israel landed in Tel AvivAFPBoys carry their surf boards as their lesson is cancelled following a mid-air explosion as a rocket is intercepted by the Iron Dome defence system over Tel AvivReutersAn Israeli border policeman surveys damage caused to a building in a Kibbutz near the border with the Gaza Strip after it was hit by a rocketReuters

An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said Hamas is firing rockets from "within houses and streets and neighbourhoods which are populated with civilians ... exposing these civilians to retaliation and to backfire."

Remnants of a long-range rocket fired from Gaza landed in south Tel Aviv after being shot down by the Iron Dome system.

Israel has also mobilised 20,000 reservists for a possible ground operation into Gaza.

Israeli tanks are positioned on the edge of a cabbage field near the border with the Gaza StripReutersAn Israeli soldier flashes the V-sign for "Victory" as he stands on a tank positioned along the southern Israeli border with the Gaza StripAFPAn Israeli soldier sleeps next to a mobile artillery unit outside the central Gaza StripReuters